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Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

153 reviews

cronchbonch's review against another edition

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The prince and her decided that they will just try and fix the kingdom even though she has no stake in it. And the politics hate both of them. 

The antisemitism is hard to get through.

Evike is drawn sexually to her captor and i'm not sure why. The romance really kills it for me.


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bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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excritos's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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katievallin's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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fuitfortuna's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Mixed feelings on this one. 

I really liked the world building, it was interesting and I could tell that the author was really knowledgeable about the folklore that inspired the world and the magic system was intriguing.

My problems lie everywhere else. While Reid certainly is talented I often found some of the writing repetitive, the author would find a phrase she liked and rinse it multiple times within 5 pages and at times i found it very difficult to power through - i actually put the book down for almost two months when i reached the halfway point because i had no motivation to continue. 

And that’s not even to mention how this almost felt like a YA masquerading as an adult? Evike is supposed to be 25 but spends most of the book acting like she’s 16. I have no real basis for this but there were multiple times where the vibes were just incredibly YA.

The pacing was also a large issue for me the first half of the book almost moved too slow and the second half moved way too fast.
The book really started to pick up once they reached the city and then it felt like events were flying by. This was really unfortunate as once we meet Katalin once again and have the big battle (for some reason?) it feels so unearned that I just didn’t really care.


I also have some conflicted thoughts on the romance. I’d heard it was more of an enemies-to-lovers type of deal and to not expect it to be the main focus of the story. And while they were certainly enemies at the very start by virtue of their backgrounds, the romance actually felt very insta-love to me,
with little development as to why they’d grown to care for each other. Though I agree that the romance should not be the main thing you focus on, it’s difficult not to when Evike is horny for Gaspar on like every page.


The epilogue left me very unfulfilled, while I could understand how Evike longed to belong somewhere and loved Keszi despite her difficult history I do not understand why she would have chosen to go back there when like every single person there was terrible to her at best and actively abusive at worst.


Overall I was quite disappointed as I expected to like this a lot more than I actually did, perhaps I just built it up too much in my head. However I did still enjoy most of the book and would read some of the authors other works.

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mold_munchr's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0


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manchester_macy's review against another edition

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I thought the concept was great, but there was no progression of the main character who got quite annoying. The plot also took really random side bars which didn't make sense. Even after getting half way I wasn't engaged.

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simone_elizabeth's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The thing I enjoyed most about this book was how it challenged our cultures view of historical eastern Europe and put marginalized cultures in the spotlight. I loved reading about Reid’s perspective on fiction as an academic and a Jewish person. The writing had some confusing imagery and the characters often repeated themselves, but those are minor gripes, especially for a debut. Also the gore in this book is hard core! (Which honestly… slay)

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chloenrogers's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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franceselsie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book wasn’t what I expected. I have to admit I don’t know a lot about Jewish folklore but I’d anticipated this being lighter in themes and tone than it was – don’t let the cover fool you!

I found Evike (the protagonist) quite frustrating as she seems to be riddled with angst; I found myself often forgetting that she’s supposed to be 25 rather than 15. 

The second half of the novel was much easier for me to read than the first half because I think it took me a while to get used to the rhythm of the writing and how dark the content was, so feel like it flowed better as it went on. The list of translated words at the back of the book was also really helpful.

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